Disable Smilies in This Post. Show Signature: include your profile signature. Only registered users may have signatures.

*If HTML and/or UBB Code are enabled, this means you can use HTML and/or UBB Code in your message.

If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.

T O P I C R E V I E W

Besixdouze

What on earth is going on here? These two bidders need to calm down and do some more research.

mode1charlie

Crikey.

Gonzo

Pricey-patches, Batman!

mach3valkyrie

I've got one I'll sell for less than that!

Skyforce1

I won a Lion Bros. Apollo 10 patch on ebay and it's much better that this one. For that amount of money this one had better have gone to the moon!

Kevin T. Randall

I see this Apollo 10 Post Flight 'Crew' patch went for a staggering $745.00 (£479.45) with only 2 bidders bidding for it.

spaced out

In fairness to the buyers, I noticed when preparing an update to my site with this latest sale result that this is the only example of this patch I've seen sold this year. Prior to 2013 I have recorded between 4 and 7 examples being sold per year.

It may be there are two keen collectors who've been waiting 6 months for an example to appear for sale and who were determined not to miss this chance.

Besixdouze

One did come up recently - 140959603064 - but was withdrawn as "incorrectly listed." The seller is well known and highly respected and this was a genuine mistake as I subsequently bought the patch he was originally intending to sell.

I expect the result of this auction will have brought a wry smile to his face.

Nevertheless, I still think the price paid was way too high. A little like the $1,038 someone paid for an Apollo 11 BIG patch (140963636732) in May (assuming the sale actually went through). Aggressive buying practices are all very well if you have the finances but it sure makes life tough for us ordinary Joes.

Besixdouze

As predicted, I think the seller of eBay no: 141003341083 did quite well at $456.51 for his crew patch. Just have to hope the newbie buyer with 0% feedback is genuine. They've certainly gone in big for a first purchase but I suppose we all have to start somewhere.

I just find it hard to believe that a similar patch I bought last year for $120 has now almost quadrupled in value.

Kevin T. Randall

That same novice bidder bid on and won eight high end patch lots this morning, six from Donnis at Lunar Legacies, at just over $1,000 in total. He must have a lot of spare money? (That's if he completes with Donnis).

mama04

I am willing to bet a great deal of money that he/she is not going to pay for any of them Kevin. I have unfortunately had a number of zero feedback bidders bidding on my lots on eBay recently, none of them ever payed or responded to messages. This is a very disturbing trend in my opinion and one that takes away the fun in our hobby.

I personally block any bidder with a zero or private feedback score who doesn't contact me first. It is difficult to block them all though and some do get through...

I'm sure that there are genuine starting bidders out there (we all started at zero at some point) but they usually don't start with high end patches.

Jim Behling

quote:Originally posted by Kevin T. Randall:That same novice bidder bid on and won eight high end patch lots this morning, six from Donnis at Lunar Legacies, at just over $1,000 in total. He must have a lot of spare money? (That's if he completes with Donnis).

Not a novice bidder but a scammer who has done this on many auctions going back to at least two weeks ago.

Kevin T. Randall

quote:Originally posted by Jim Behling: Not a novice bidder but a scammer who has done this on many auctions going back to at least two weeks ago.

Just had an e-mail from Donnis and Jan Willis confirming this fact.

So I've now won the set of four Swissartex Shuttle patch lot I thought I had lost.

vidoz

quote:Originally posted by Jim Behling: Not a novice bidder but a scammer

I agree with Jim.

I have been keeping record of his/her bids for a couple of weeks and this person is clearly a scammer who never pays for his/her winning patches.

He/she recently bid on a Rastro patch as well. So, I asked the seller, who is a cS'er too, if he got the payment and he replied not.

What is happening to our hobby? This scammers seem to proliferate lately.

Kevin T. Randall

According to Donnis and Jan Willis, eBay is investigating this current scammer problem.

Besixdouze

Great to hear you had a satisfactory outcome there Kevin, but this current practice is definitely becoming very irksome especially as the non-paying bidders tactics are difficult to react against.

I'm sure we are both well aware, generally, of the collectors/bidders we regularly come across, including those we'd rather not bid against because a) they're friends or b) historically, they have very deep pockets (which means we can tailor our approach to the auction accordingly) but this guys modus operandi seems to be to place a ridiculously high bid very close to the end of the auction to see how far they can force genuine bidders to go - a move which could lead to very unfortunate circumstances.

It's hard to see where the entertainment value lies in all of this for the bogus bidder as they're not going to profit from it in any way I can see but it's a real pain in the butt for the rest of us buyers and sellers alike.

I'm all for sellers like Donnis and Maarten excluding any bidders with zero feedback or less than 10 purchases from bidding if it puts an end to this problem.

stsmithva

quote:Originally posted by Besixdouze:It's hard to see where the entertainment value lies in all of this for the bogus bidder as they're not going to profit from it in any way

This alludes to what I've been wondering on this and at least one other thread where this issue was discussed - WHY?

I keep seeing "scammer" mentioned above, but scammers are trying for a dishonest monetary reward. Is this just a case of losers causing trouble for bidders and/or sellers, or is there any way that said losers get money out of this?

Greggy_D

Agreed. This person is not a scammer since they are not materially benefiting, but much more a troublemaker.

Having said that, a side effect to the disruption they are causing are possible higher winning bids by the community if the troublemaker bids in second place.

fredtrav

The only way I could see these actions benefiting the scammer is if he also has patches to sell. If he drives up the price on a similar item, then when he puts his items up for sale, the market may follow his actions.

treddie

They may just be pranksters, but I find that odd in such an "odd" market as ours. The last post seems to offer a good theory.

It happened to me when I posted some STS-1 documents. Fortunately, on some original Apollo AOH items, the buyers were legit.

Beau08

This situation has happened to me multiple times as well. It has been some time since I created my eBay account so I don't recall the process, but maybe it needs to be a little more difficult to create a new one. I think these people just create a new account once one has been terminated by eBay. It has helped to set my preferences to not accept bidders without a Paypal account.

Liembo

Those bidders are affecting some charity auctions for a flown patches now.

Ebay item: 251296467769, 251296469540

Very unfortunate.

JBoe

All of those auctions (from auctioncause2) are quite expensive, but I guess it's a non-profit that is being used to open up the space frontier.

Robert Pearlman

Charity auctions often attract first time bidders with deep pockets. This particular auction was profiled and tweeted about by eBay itself.

Greggy_D

This individual in question is also bidding on other non-charity space flown items. I tell you what, this type of behavior is steering me away from bidding on eBay until it gets sorted out. I certainly do not want to overpay on an item because the troublemaker, who has no intention of ever paying if they won, comes in second and drives up the sale price.